Senior Financial Analyst, Real Estate Development

about 3 years ago
Full time role
New York, NY, US... more
New York, NY, US... more

Company

Sidewalk Labs aims to combine forward-thinking urban design and cutting-edge technology to radically improve urban life. We’ve proposed a comprehensive plan ...

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Job Description

Who are we?

Sidewalk Labs is an urban innovation company working to make cities more sustainable and affordable for all. We create products, invest in new companies, and help plan innovative places around the world. Since our founding in 2015, we’ve grown into an organization of over 100 employees based primarily in New York City. Our cross-disciplinary team consists of experts from real estate, urban planning, government, finance, technology, and engineering, among other backgrounds.

We’ve launched innovative companies addressing urban mobility, next-generation infrastructure, and community-based healthcare, and invested in startups working on everything from robotic furniture to digital electricity. We continue to work internally on projects such as factory-made mass timber construction that can improve housing affordability and sustainability, a digital master-planning tool designed to help developers and communities achieve shared objectives, and a new approach to all-electric neighborhoods.

With the potential to catalyze and scale new models for sustainable and affordable growth, our work is both exciting and complex. We are working to achieve something unprecedented — help us build it!

What is the role?

To achieve our vision, we aim to catalyze the application of innovation to the urban environment. Increasingly, technological innovation, novel real estate operating models, and new construction methodologies will enable more affordable, sustainable, and liveable cities. 

You will be a key member of Sidewalk Labs’ Development team, which works with developers in cities around the world  to create innovative plans that can achieve the greatest possible impact on urban life. Senior Associate or Associate Director (depending on your experience), you will contribute to all phases of the real estate investment and development process, including sourcing, underwriting, due diligence, execution, financing, and asset management. 

The initial focus of the role is on developing robust and detailed financial models to underwrite the financial impact of Sidewalk’s proposed innovations for clients. In this, you will work closely with our team of urban planners, developers, and subject matter experts when engaging new potential clients or developing an innovative urban development strategy for an existing client. 

At its best, this role will be part of thought-provoking conversations with real estate developers, operators, and non-profits on real-world pain points, use cases, and pilots and will model different partnership, investment, and operating scenarios, as required.  Our clients are carefully selected for alignment with our mission and an openness to new ideas. While all of our clients have a positive track record, some are multinational corporations and others are small, highly localized operators. 

What You Will Achieve

We believe in spelling out the deliverables as we see them today. These might change, but should give you a better understanding of what the actual work entails.

After 3 months you will…

  • Deeply understand Sidewalk Labs’ innovative solutions and their impact on the economics of real estate development. 
  • Have absorbed the Development team’s commercial model for evaluating and contracting with clients. You will have participated actively in business development and client project completion, by supporting 5 client pitches and 2 new engagements.
  • Understand how Delve works and interacts with the financial model, and be able to make adjustments alongside the Delve team.
  • Have worked closely with your peer financial analysts to understand the models developed to date.

By the end of the first six months you will...

  • You will have developed at least one detailed and nuanced real estate financial model (in Excel) to underwrite new transactions that incorporate Sidewalk’s innovations and are responsible for running all of our numbers against the big picture of the projects. 
  • Have supported 10 client pitches, and helped us sign four new engagements.
  • Have collaborated with your team to identify 2-4 metrics to understand and describe inclusive development (e.g., broad affordability, community stewardship, corporate culture)

After the first year and continuing onward...

  • You are able to identify in which environments and specific land sites these solutions can be applied to bend the curve of development economics, leading to more sustainable and affordable outcomes.
  • You’ve become so comfortable with your work-streams that you are one of Sidewalk’s representatives in conversations with potential partners and you are actively involved in the structuring and execution of deals.

What We Expect

At Sidewalk Labs, our Associates typically have several years of relevant experience, have proven that they can accomplish great things, and are excited to bring their abilities to our ambitious and hard work. We are looking for team members who can demonstrate:

Deep experience underwriting and investing in real estate projects

  • The required analytical skills and expertise to build real estate models for mixed-use urban developments from scratch;
  • Has experienced the lifecycle of a multifamily project, seeing the same development project from acquisitions through stabilization; 
  • Knowledge of affordable housing economics including operating models, financing options and incentives;
  • Candidates need to be able to hit the ground running. Therefore,  we generally look for 4-8 years of experience working at a real estate developer, operator or investor.

Expertise in assessing investment opportunities

  • Excellent ability to research and interpret macro fundamentals to identify new and compelling investment themes;
  • Asset management experience across use types preferred (residential, retail, office, logistics);
  • Experience in complex transactions such as public private partnerships and financing with institutional partners;
  • Interested in new real estate asset classes, operating models, and construction techniques;

Strong collaboration across disciplines

  • Thrive in a rigorous, analytical environment, and have rigorous time management and record keeping skills;
  • Enjoy collaborating with cross-disciplinary teams handling large amounts of information;
  • Work extremely well as the subject matter expert within a team, which requires balance of independent and group work, and is reliant on iterating at a high level;
  • Exhibit a sharp and precise communication style.

Solve problems, together.

  • Ask hard questions and challenge assumptions to ensure that we’re solving the right problems.
  • Have flexibility to work on the team’s most pressing problems.

Care. 

  • About cities, solving hard problems, and our team’s success.

We are very excited to hear from you.

Sidewalk Labs is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We actively seek applicants from underrepresented communities. Even if you are not 100% sure you are right for the role, please apply and we will be happy to consider your application. All employment is based on merit and business need, and we respond to each application we receive.

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